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wildly to right and left, and scrambled upon the counter.

Grace stepped back, under the impression that the girl had become demented. The movement saved her life.

Before she could cry out, before she could take another step backwards, the floor beneath her leapt and sank. She had not felt the slight preliminary tremor which had warned the girl upon the counter of imminent danger, and the ghastly sensation sickened her and filled her with a terrible fear.

She staggered and turned wildly towards the door.

The huge building rocked for a few moments, then crumbled.

Grace glimpsed a mighty concreted girder descending upon her, and she knew there was no escape. She cried out and crouched, throwing herself backwards against the counter. She saw the girder fall across a show-case, crushing it to matchwood. Splintered glass was thrown in her face, causing her a moment of intense agony before a blow from above rendered her unconscious.

She sank to the floor; and the girder, supported by the stout timber of the counter and the crushed body of the blonde girl with friendly eyes, sheltered her from the tons of debris which thundered down.

****

The constable found her two hours later.

The violent earth shock had roused him from a reverie induced by the sun’s warmth and thoughts of the little lost woman, and had sent him running into the middle of the street in company with a crowd of excited people, where he stood and awaited events.

Following a moment of intense silence, such as he had known between the striking of a high-explosive shell and its devastating burst, had come the catastrophe. The drapery store had buckled, twisted and crumbled with a roar, shooting dense volumes of dust into the sky.